In the first part of this new series exploring the world of subtractive synthesis, Gordon Reid goes right back to basics. What are waveforms and harmonics, where do they come from, and how does the theory relate to what we actually hear? This is the first part in a 63-part series.

From Sound on Sound website. The articles go from page three to page one in the above link and include how you can create a lot of common sounds like drums from scratch.